DCTerra’s equestrian sports and husbandry courses do not start the new school year in Assen, but in Exloo. The educational institution has found a new home for these courses at the Equestrian Center in Exloo.
The students are currently still taking their lessons at Sunrise Stables in Assen, but the rental contract there is expiring.
The school is welcomed with open arms at the equestrian center in Exloo. Owner Lieuwe Koopmans responds enthusiastically: “I am very happy with this. We have been working on it for some time and would have liked the training earlier, but then corona threw a spanner in the works.”
According to Koopmans, it is a wonderful opportunity to bring training and practice together. “I hope that students can come into contact with their future employers here. Think of the sport, the stables, the teams in competitive sports. We are really going to make something beautiful out of it.” And the owner of the Equestrian Center is ambitious: “I want to strive for this to be the best equestrian training course in the Netherlands within five years.”
Before that happens, there is still work to be done. “It’s a short time, because we’re already starting in September. So it’s all hands on deck now. The plan gained momentum, so we immediately involved the municipality, which is also very positive about it. We still have to create teaching spaces, which could be temporary classrooms, for example. We are now going through the procedures for that,” Lieuwe Koopmans explains.
The intention is for ninety students to continue their equestrian sports or horse husbandry training in Exloo from September onwards. The center in Exloo and DCTerra first signed up for this collaboration for ten years.
Despite the challenge of creating teaching space, Koopmans does not feel limited by the arrival of the courses. “There is plenty of space on our site and I especially see the advantages. The students will have to carry out all kinds of assignments that we can integrate very nicely with the work at and for the equestrian center. Consider organizing events.”
And DCTerra also shows that it mainly sees opportunities: “The location in Exloo fits in seamlessly with DCTerra’s ambitions: practice-oriented, future-proof education with a lot of attention to horse welfare, customization and learning in a professional environment,” writes the educational institution.
Transport to the teaching location in Exloo was still a topic of discussion, says Lieuwe Koopmans. “Unfortunately, we do not yet have a bus stop at our center, which is still a wish. But we have made agreements about this with the school. Students could travel via the bus stops in Exloo or Valthe and then have to walk a bit. And there are options from the training to be taken to the bus station in Borger by bus.”
Last September, the Equestrian Center in Exloo came up with major expansion plans. “Giving education a role in this was one of the wishes. We are now going to fulfill that. I first want this to go well, then we will look at the rest of the plans. We will now put them on hold first, because you should not want too much at the same time,” says Koopmans.
